Voice Type

Strengths/Achievements

Resonance is consistently present up until D5, support kept at times above that

Able to support notes down to the F3 ~ Eb3 range

A pure well produced and controlled head voice, consistently controlled and resonant

Great breath control for dynamics

Nasality is basically non-existent

Musicality is one of her strongest assets, very well established vocalist and knows her style/voice

Even and healthy vibrato is achieved often enough

A very agile voice, with seamless transitions from chest to mix and from mix to head

Capable of jumping from the lowest parts of her range up to the highest without difficulty

Never tries to overpower her mix or sing outside of her voice type

Points for Improvement

Notes above D5/Eb5 get inconsistent with throat shape and larynx position

Arguably a stylistic choice, her throatiness seems to be uncontrolled on notes above Eb5

Notes below Eb3 become slightly cloudy although still with tone

Head voice becomes pinched on F#6

Notes from E5 ~ A5 can be very strained and pushed

Vibrato can at times be too quick and sound uncontrolled

Vocal runs can at times lack control and be musically unfitting to the song/style she’s singing

Registers

Lower register: One of the most well supported low ranges amongst K-pop vocalists, Lena Park is not only able to keep an even production of sound throughout her range but also a stable larynx and a supported resonant sound down to Eb3/E3, and below still keep considerable tone although losing the resonance and becoming a bit cloudy

Mixed register: A very inconsistent range and the least developed of her voices. She is able to keep resonance and an even column of sound through her mix up until D5, but then lose resonance and becoming slightly throaty as she ascends and slowly becoming more yell-like than truly supported, even if her voice is placed correctly in the mask, the throat closes and is pushing her voice out.

Upper register: A pure range where her voice finds the most freedom, she uses her head voice without any effort, is able to jump quickly through notes and sustain notes for a considerably amount of time in her head voice, even as high as her C6 ~ F6 range, only becoming shrill on her highest peak, F#6.

Agility

Possessing a very light and bright voice, Lena Park has the advantage when it comes to vocal agility. Her voice is very agile, able to hit a series of notes with good control and clear note separation, from very low notes to very high notes in her range, she can travel through her range in a second, like her run up to F6 in the performance of “그대안의 블루” with Kim Gun Moo, where she jumps from F4 to F6 in a vocal run, hitting a series of notes in between with precision and accuracy, showing no signs of effort. The problem with Lena Park’s runs is her lack of ability to precisely choose the notes she is going to hit before hand, making her riffs sound slightly improvised and not carefully thought-through, but the agility in itself is very well worked through her voice and it shows as one of her most well executed skills.

Overall analysis

One of Korea’s legends, Lena Park debuted back in 1998 in Korea. A native of Los Angeles, California, Lena Park grew up singing church music and had released a CCM album in 1993. She then chose to take on South Korea and was always treated with praise and considered one of Korea’s first R&B vocalists. Though not really an R&B singer, and more of a ballad singer, Lena Park brought adlibs, improvisations and vocal runs to the spotlight of the Korean ballad scene with her roots in church and her western-like mixed singing style. Although not confident with the Korean language and not fond of TV appearances, she did eventually become more comfortable with appearing on TV and is respected today as one of Korea’s most praised legendary vocalists.

Along with her singing style, Lena Park possesses a very wide range of assets that help her singing. She never was one to sing outside of her voice type, possessing a very girly, feminine, light and youthful quality to her voice, even after years and being into her 30’s, her voice still stands as one of the true Light Lyric Sopranos in Korea. She never tried to add an unnecessary amount of chest voice into her mix or try to sound thicker or heavier, respecting the lightness of her voice and using it to her advantage.

From debut Lena Park already possessed a wide range, but back then her lower range wasn’t as developed as it is today. It had a breathier quality and less projection and support on notes such as E3 and even as high as G3, such as in her version of Mulan’s “Reflection“. With age and maturity, Lena Park was able to make impressive improvements with her lower range, from being quite soft on G3’s, to being able to produce fully supported notes from the G3’s in her performance of “바보“, the D3’s from the live performances of “몽중인“, where tone is still present in her voice and even supported E3’s from her performance of “거위의 꿈“, where she also hit a few C#3’s where her tone wasn’t lost and her supported Eb3’s from her reedition of “이젠 그랬으면 좋겠네“. Truly a very well placed and resonant low range, where her larynx is neutral and the support is completely present very close to the bottom of her vocal range.

Her voice naturally sits higher and should theoretically find itself more easily able to mix high and shine in the upper mixed range. However Lena Park shows a considerable loss in stamina and vocal power when she ascends into her upper mix. The notes below D5 are most often produced with support, evenness in mix and resonance, examples being the D5’s from “달” and her C5’s, C#5 and D5’s in her most recent performance on Immortal Song 2 of “Completely“. However so, it’s clear that her voice lacks the ability to stay fully resonant and strong as she ascends higher than Eb5, where her support starts to become inconsistent. In her performance of “이젠 그랬으면 좋겠네“, her E5’s become throaty and strained half way through the note when she is sustaining them .Above E5 although her placement is good and in her mask with no nasality present, her voice becomes thin, shrill and weaker. Her highest peak in mixed voice is A5 in a live performance of JYP’s “Swing Baby” which sounded rather pushed and sung with a high larynx. Her mixed range is, although much better than the average female pop vocalist, still her weakest vocal register and one where she lacks the full power she tries to portray with her power ballads. Nonetheless even in her performances of “첫인상” she was able to at times hit F5’s with some resonance. However even then these notes would suddenly become shrill and almost yelled halfway through the note as she’d sustain them due to the lack of strength in her vocal cords and the lack of support carried up in her mix. Nonetheless a mixed voice range that is commendable, as carrying developed support up to Eb5 is no easy feat.

The biggest highlight of Lena Park’s voice, however, is her head voice. Unlike her lower range that improved over time, or her mixed range, that more or less stayed the same throughout her career, Lena Park’s head voice was as good as it is today from debut. More recently she doesn’t venture into the 6th octave as often as she used to be, but it was never uncommon to hear very high, supported and sustained 6th octave notes in her album work. Even live, she could easily hit the C#6 from “편지할게요” and “Hard to Say I’m Sorry“, the C6 from “게으름뱅이“, as well as the album sustained notes such as the D6 from “이별하러 가는 길,” “Oh Holy Night,” and the E6 from the studio version of “몽중인“. From her debut album, Lena Park already had hit her highest head voice note, F#6, in her song “P.S. I Love You“, which was also done in the live reedition of the song, although not as opened as in studio. Lena Park could always easily control her head voice, keep it supported, resonant and opened with fullness, brightness and correct head placement, as well as considerable flexibility and seamless transitions from her other voices. She could also contain the amount of breath she wanted and soften her mix slowly during a sustained and soften it into making it a head voice mid-way through the note like in “Completely“.

Speaking of “Completely“, Lena Park also shows a great amount of dynamic and breath control through her performances, one of the most musical vocalists in Korea, she captivates people with her emotional approaches to songs that are delivered successfully through her control of flow, ornamentations, dynamics, vocal effects and rhythm. Her vocal styling at times also may excuse her use throatiness in singing, because it is as though she chooses to adopt that style to further help her song interpretation, even if not being the healthiest vocal approach one should adopt.

The one other negative aspect of her voice, however, is that although her intonation and support are quite consistent, she tends to have an inconsistent use of vibrato, which will at times sound rushed and uncontrolled. Her vibrato can be very even and healthy at times, but at others it comes out throaty and overly fast which is rather unhealthy. She still shows a a control of when and when not to use vibrato, however, opting for straight tone at times and others for her stylistic vibrato or her even vibrato.

Although a Korean legend, Lena Park is not a perfect technical vocalist. A much more advanced vocalist than most of her peers, Lena Park still makes some technical sacrifices for the sake of style. If it weren’t for her sometimes out of place riffs, uneven vibrato and underdeveloped mixed range, she could easily be one of the world’s strongest technical vocalists. Due to her style and musical choices, she may never really work on developing a stronger and more powerful approach to her mixed range, which results in a very limited sound from E5 to A5, quite a big gap when considering the potential of her Soprano voice. Nevertheless, a very well developed voice from one of Korea’s most respected musicians, Lena Park owns what she does and knows what her voice can and cannot do and what she wishes to do with it.

Musicianship

She is a vocalist who is in complete control of her voice. Lena Park runs through songs adding her own vocal runs, changing the melody of songs and making songs her own every single time she performs them. She is not one to sing a song Karaoke-like, and her agility and ability to always improvise on the spot is one of the assets that sets her apart from most other vocalist. At times her improvisations can either come out a bit messy-sounding or strained when she gets out of her supported mix range, but overall she knows exactly where and what she wants to do with a song when she chooses to sing them.

hello, I just hear her performance in 2017 and I think her health getting better!! 0.17 it’s supported E3? a bit soft but I still heard connection there.
in 3.04 it’s C5 and resonance and in 3.09 it’s D5 peak to Eb5 – F5? D5 sound resonance to me, but am not sure. thank!!!

It’s F3, I think. It has some support. 3:04 It’s a light resonance but it’s there. 3:09 I’d say the D5 ~ F5 all had support to a degree, but with some glottal tension that was mostly obvious on the D5 being sustained. So I wouldn’t say it was opened enough for resonance.

It starts with C#5 which was supported but it became more shrill and tight as she went up to the E5. 10:42 I agree, there’s some support but she’s tightening her throat muscles without supporting enough or relaxing enough.

Hi ahmin3 i just wonder about her Note in 3.05 it’s E5? i think she has some support but It’s pushed and still tension? not sure.
OH!! you have to watch at the end of the video. maybe you like it, haha. thank you so much. 😀

I have some question about vocal tone. I just watched some videos on youtube, and it said that “maturing” voice/tone is a positive improvement. Is that true? like what happened to demi lovato. She’s a light-lyrics soprano, but her tone is changed somewhat darker and kinda sounds like full-lyrics. But i remembered somewhere you said that vocal types can’t change, can’t evolve like pokemons. So if her tone is changing, is she still has that light-lyrics type?
In the other side, Jung Dongha learn how to lighten his voice for a better projection, so his tone is changed but it’s good right? Lena park and Bada can keep their tone over the years. Is that also a good thing?
And if the tone is change, is that affect the technique? Like the resonance or better/worse agility? Thank you

Voice types aren’t evolutions as in, being a tenor isn’t being a higher level than a baritone or a full lyric isn’t a higher level than a light lyric, that’s what I meant but yes voice types can change as you age although not necessarily common. It’s not a good or a bad thing, it’s just part of aging. Some people’s voices change and some don’t.

Hi!! Can I ask you something?
from Lena’s analysis you said ‘ she was able to at times hit F5’s with some resonance ‘ it that mean she had supported and resonance or she just resonance F5’s?
We can resonance without support?
and what about this performance She hit the difference note in the same song
3.33 it’s E5? and she has support, but still tight?

I love your blog very much. And I’m a Lena fan club.
I have a project to present in class. Can I use some of the information in your blog?
Especially the information of Lena. Don’t worry about plagiarism.I will give you credit every word.
If you’re not okay, it’s okay. Thank you very much again And sorry for my bad English. Haha 😂😂

It sounds like there’s resonance, but at the end, she sounded slightly throaty because she doesn’t have enough air. She can’t sustain her high notes for too long; she at times, sounds throaty at the end of a sustained belt. I never saw this performance; she sounds GREAT.

I agree with you. It looks like she had some resonance at the first but at the end, her support was not strong enough to carry resonance for long. I never saw this video before she sounds amazing. Maybe we need Armin to help us, for making sure that she can resonance up to Eb5 and maybe add this new information into her vocal ability.

Hi Armin, I have some question. Some people said Lena’s F6 head voice in your analysis is not supported. They said it sound airy and disconnected from the body.
But I think she supported that F6 with relaxing and well placement. Her voice just very light. What do you think? I believe that airy and disconnected head voice is something that she never needs. Even her highest head voice is still connected.

In 2018, I saw Lena having a voice development,especially mix voice.
and i think she is consistent Eb5 right now. and i think she can supported E5 i think that is not accident. so i have a video to help you decide that her vocal range should be Eb5/E5 or consistent Eb5.

in 1.24 – 1.54 the Eb5 were supported?
in 2.19 E5 she had some supported?

that all about Her mix voice in 2018 what do you think? Hope those video will help you more or less. am not sure the note that I show you are all supported but i think she develope her mix register now. thank you so much 😀

The first link, yes the Eb5’s had support. Also the E5 had some support, but the E5’s prior were better executed. I know you made that video, so I’d just like to say that I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use text from this analysis while making the video. Even if you want to use information from here, you could at least rewrite it in your own words instead of copying it word by word without giving it credit.

My Heart Will Go On: Both Eb5’s had throatiness and support. “Nothing” 0:10 that Eb5 was better executed than the “Forever” one you highlighted. That one was throatier.

꿈에: 2:17 Yes it was supported, but pushed. Also pushed 3:30 but with support.

이젠 그랬으면 좋겠네: 4:37 E5, it’s a very confusing execution of the note. She is supporting, but pushing a lot. Her larynx is starting to raise, it’s almost 50/50 on support vs tension/pushing. It’s right at the limit of where she can push her mix and still carry support without the larynx being too high, but to say it’s a fully or mostly supported note may not be accurate.

이젠 그랬으면 좋겠네: 4:30 More tension than support. She dropped the support actually right before the note. The A4 before the E5 already had lost support, so to be able to get it back would’ve been harder. Not supported.

꿈에: 2:14 Same thing as the other Eb5’s in this song usually. Pushing, not opened enough but it’s mostly supported. Not the best form of support, but it’s passable enough as support because the execution works in the end.

Okay, so I understand and know that you are a Lena Park fan. You ask about her a lot and I know you like to follow her a lot. I like her too, and perhaps because I wrote this analysis 4 years ago I wasn’t able to convey things as well as I could’ve. I probably could do a better job now, but let’s just break down a few things. There’s no need to change her supported range to Eb5/E5 because her E5’s aren’t consistent. Not just that, you seem to pick notes from the same songs, as if she doesn’t have those notes in other songs? The thing with Lena is she can support above Eb5. She always did, she’s always had supported E5’s and F5’s, but they are such rare notes. You can’t count it as part of her consistently supported range. The reason Eb5 is D5/Eb5 and not just Eb5 is because the support on Eb5 isn’t as optimal as D5. Up to D5 she is consistent and her approach is much cleaner, with little tension if any. However on Eb5, the pushing that happens below starts to become more obvious and the support becomes less consistent. Not just that, but the nature of the support is already questionable, so the notes lack a clean, relaxed and full support to begin with. Her Eb5’s are more or less consistent, just not executed to the best of what they could be. As for her E5’s, she has always had some, but they are rare. Not to mention of her biggest problems is also if she sustains a note too long, it gets throaty. It can even happen on D5 or C#5. I am not sure I’d say there’s been an improvement in her mix at all, because she’s doing things she’s always done. Some of the clips you used in the first video have better execution than the 2018 ones. So I’m sorry, but I cannot change her supported range because the inconsistent in her airflow and support has not changed. Her pushing hasn’t changed and her strain above Eb5 hasn’t been minimized.

Tank you so much!!!
I use your informetion in my video but i give you a credit every video at the end of the video.💗💗 but i think this year she supported Eb5 and E5 more than any year that i have ever seen. Even it not fully support.
Thank you so much for your reply and kindness. Love you.😘💗💗

2:44 Very flat. Very closed, the throat closed completely around the note. It wasn’t even F6, I feel like it was closer to E6.
2:42 It carries some support, but it lost the placement and openness.
1:47 It was fairly simple, slightly rushed to some notes were not 100% clear.

5:36 and 5:51, both E5’s but the first is very flat and the support is dodgy. The larynx kind of raised, the second one was better and closer to a fuller support. 6:00 G5, head voice, you could say it has resonance. 12:31 Not a well executed note, at all. It wasn’t low. It was Bb3. The other videos are blocked for me.

Hi Armin, Happy new year and thank you for your working hard on this page it’s amazing.
Can you help me please?

3.06 i think i heard F6 before F#6 and after that i heard E6 and Eb6 Am I right?
F6,E6 and Eb6 were supported? i think F#6 weren’t supported but sound good not sure.
I curious about close throat and close vowel it’s different? what happen when the throat closed and what about the vowel closed. Thank you so much:DD

3:11 It’s supported, with somewhat good placement but it lacks fulness and it lacks clean support to call it a resonant note. It’s got enough support though.

3:30 I personally wouldn’t call this a fully supported note. It has support, but it was too much on the border for me between pushed support and tension and I wouldn’t give it a pass personally just cause the note is really not free enough. I’d call it a note with support but not a fully supported note.

4:34 No, I wouldn’t say it’s relaxed enough. 5:36 It’s a D5, with enough support when it started but kind of questionable as she sustains it.

Ahmin please can you check this video for me?
Lena just performed this today and what do you think about those notes? It E5?
Supported or any resonance because this is sound so good for her.
Thank you so much